Fest planner: Taco Fest, City Made, Vegan Mania, more

Fill up at Taco Fest, Apple Fest and new City Made Fest

Ready for the city's first taco festival? Of course you are. (Lenny Gilmore/RedEye )

September 16, 2013|By Kate Bernot, @redeyeeatdrink | RedEye

Cooling temperatures make this a fantastic weekend for craft beers, apples and ... tacos? Two new Chicago fests—Andersonville City Made Fest and Sam Adams' Lakeview Taco Fest—hit the streets this week with a focus on locally brewed beer and tacos, respectively, while VeganMania keeps veggie-minded folks full and Lincoln Square Apple Fest kicks off the fall season with cider, pie, doughnuts and more. We'd recommend an outfit involving flannel, boots, and your comfiest eating pants. kbernot@tribune.com @redeyeeatdrink

Don't miss: Hard shell or soft, with guac or without, meaty or veggie, tacos will take center stage as local restaurants including Cafe El Tapatio, Crosby's Kitchen, The Pony and Bodega Bar de Tacos dish up their own versions of everyone's favorite tortilla-wrapped snack. Visitors can text to vote for their favorite while watching lucha libre wrestling matches (5-6:30 p.m. both days) and singing along to sets by Get Up With The Get Downs (6 p.m. Saturday), Stache (3:30 p.m. Sunday), Wedding Banned (7:45 p.m. Sunday) and more. Because the fest is sponsored by Sam Adams, expect tents serving a half dozen of the brewery's seasonal beers.

Don't miss: Pie, cider, doughnuts and more—all made with apples, obvi—are on the menu for this 26th annual fall celebration. With more than 40 vendors, the fest also will host some more creative uses of the fruit, including apple pizzas, apple-caramel bread pudding and smoked pulled pork-and-apple sandwiches. Music and craft beer also are on the line-up, and yes, you can pick up a bushel to take home, too.

VeganMania

When: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday

Where: Broadway Armory Park (5917 N. Broadway)

How much: Free to attend

Don't miss: This marks the fifth year for the all-vegan food fest, which includes not just edible options but info on vegan culture and clothing as well. Feel good about snacking on treats from more than a dozen of the city's vegan and vegetarian restaurants; all the utensils and tableware are biodegradable, and trash is meticulously separated from recyclable material. Guests can also check out cooking demonstrations, speakers, workshops and musical performances.

Don't miss: In a city that loves its sausages, it's somewhat surprising that this is Chicago's first Wurst Festival. The three-day weekday line-up offers cooking demonstrations (including a 10 a.m. Friday installment about chorizo), a sausage-making class with newcomer West Loop Salumi (3 p.m. Friday) and a beer-and-sausage pairing segment (4 p.m. Friday).